The more things change

Part 3

(Friday: Evening)

The man with eloquent speech came into the light of the room. Her eyes grew wide as he came into view. He was exceptionally well dressed, wearing a high end dark blue suit, and pale blue shirt. The tie was purple and swung lazily as he strutted into the room. Dark blue eyes stared at her with a smirk. A well manicured goatee of salty black, complimented his head of salty black salt colored hair.

"Dr. Ramsey?" She stuttered

"It's good to know you still recognize me!" he stated moving in closer to his prisoner.

"You've changed quite a bit though my dear. When last I saw you, you were a blonde haired woman with no desire to a life of superheroics. About the farthest thing from a Superhero one could be! What changed all that?

At the time Betsy had never thought about it, but her life changed the day Dr. Synne had first came into her life. When he first tampered with her mind.

"It couldn't have been the meddling me and the late Dr. Synne did with your mind could it?" He stated.

"Considering I never knew I had these abilities until after my stay at Mordor!" she admitted.

" A latent mutant? I see our attempt at brainwashing you must have unlocked those gifts of yours. That would explain why the mutants of the X-men would take you in! But how can you explain being alive, when the world watched the X-men die on the telly?" He quizzed, poking at her armour. Enjoying the look and feel of it.

"This suit of yours is really amazing, protection and fashionable.."

"What can I say, I have good taste!" She move her leg away from him.

"We X-men have many lives! What about yourself Ramsey?"

"Good living I guess? But I assume you mean how did I come to be here from whence you last saw me?" He took a seat near a series of computers, and faced the Telepath.

"Well last episode you recall, that oaf of a brother of yours and that blasted yank, were pummeling me and my chaps for aiding the Red Skull!"

"I spent time in jail for crimes against the queen, but that same queen released me years ago, because of my...Expertise, in certain areas. Full pardon and all that rot!" He stated coyly.

"So you decided to become some villain? To what end? Why waste freedom in whatever pursuit it is you are doing?" She asked genuinely puzzled.

"I can state history all day luv, since we both know it, and it's always good to catch up!" He rose ushering out the thugs. "I'm no supervillain luv! Even if I were, I wouldn't stand here and then explain my diabolical plan to ya! That'd be daft yeah?"

"I could simply read your mind..." She stated easily.

"You could...But I've plenty practice at the mind my dear. I was once controlled by Dr. Synne myself, and practiced many techniques at resisting attempts upon my brain. Feel free to try!" He stated locking eyes with her.

Psylocke didn't want to take the bait. As a Telepath, and during her journey as an X-man, and member of Excalibur, she has suffered Psychic Backlash more times than she cared to remember. His mind could be trapped for all she knew. But the desire was there, and by the time she realized she wanted to, she was already probing his mind. Almost immediately she hit a brick wall, she tried to go deeper, but he resisted mightily. His inner mind was tough, but she would get through. Her Butterfly form sought a means around the wall. A small crack appeared and she looked at it suspiciously, then ventured through it.

As she passed beyond she saw a picture of Ramsey standing next to The boy, Ramsey then looked at her. He whispered something into the boys ears, and pointed at her. Betsy grew concerned and morphed into a half human/butterfly form. As the boy looked at her, Ramsey suddenly appeared behind her. He locked her in a Psychic grapple, he had tricked her, using a memory of the boy as a scare tactic, and she fell for it. She tried to fight him off, but he pulled her back to the wall easily, and casually tossed her back through it. Betsy's consciousness slammed back into her mind, the earlier headache returned.

"Touche' Ramsey, your defenses are formidable I admit, but trust me, NEVER let your guard down around a Telepath." She said.

" Around an X-man? Never. Besides I'd like to continue our dialogue in the morning, it's growing late, and I've plans to set into motion, calls to be made and all that." He said as he exited the room, and lowered the lights.

"It's good to see you again Ms. Braddock!" He said genuinely.

Psylocke said nothing as he exited.

"Arrogant sod!" She muttered. Glad she was able to keep her patience while dealing with the man. She didn't learn until much later that Dr. Synne and Ramsey had tampered with her head. In a way she was appreciative, for it had unlocked her latent powers, even though she was 26 when it happened. But it had led to many people trying to control her and use her powers for their own ends. Some were successful, and others less so.

"It is good that he doesn't know about the other aspect of my powers, my Technopathy. While the good Doctor makes his plans, I can learn what they are in another fashion. I'll probe his computers." she thought.

But first she scanned the room looking for anything related to the child., and possibly electronic. Her Psychic scan discovered two phones, and the main computer she was across from. Although still trapped by the electronic clamps, which she could release herself from easily. She didn't want to trigger alerts. She had to learn his plans in totality.

Shaking off the Psychic backlash as much as possible, she focused on the phones first. Easily breaking their clumsy passwords and probing the devices for Texts, calls, and pictures, and anything else of use. If humans were one thing it's being creatures of habit, and being too lazy to do things at times. The mooks had taken pictures of the crime scenes and even sent the images to friends as idiotic as they were. but there was nothing in there about their overall plans. These guys were just dumb muscle. She even saw the text about them coming after her, and her arrival in town. It appears there was something about the townsfolk that seemed missing. There may have been a connection between the murders after all.

Fatigue was taking her, it had been a long day, and she'd used her Powers for the majority of it. She didn't want to, but she knew she needed rest, she'd be no good to Tyree if she wasn't at her possible best. Making her way back into her mind, she meditated, and within minutes was asleep. A few hours should do it

(Saturday : 3Am)

Psylocke was more fatigued than she had though, she'd slept nearly an hour longer than she had wanted to. She erased the fog from her head. The sleep although long had worked, although groggy, she had been refreshed enough to use her powers again.

She needed to know many things, where she was, who was about, and their numbers.

Her powers were less combat focused as they used to be, but excellent at gathering the information she'd need.

As her Psi-self moved about the place, she started outside the building. She needed to know where EXACTLY she was. Her escape and evade training would come into play here. Moving up into the sky her displaced senses gave her a good look about. She was still in town amazingly. Her range was short, no more than 2 miles. Perhaps her vehicle was still about. The thugs had brought it with them, she guessed to keep the police unawares of what was transpiring. She discovered two nurses, one male another female, whose thoughts showed they were there to provide Tyree with comfort and medical aide. All showed signs of mental tampering. She'd have to rememdey that if given the chance.

That would come in handy. She had her route in mind. Now back inside she went. Methodically going from room to room, although Ramsey's mind may have been shielded from her, the others were not. Two of the four youths stayed the night, their thoughts showed they were there to handle her if she became trouble. She intended to give them their wish, but not now. She needed her strength for what was to come after the found the boy. She spied on ramsey, his bed a mess of papers and other documents. With him asleep she dare not probe his mind, it may alert him, then her plans would be for naught.

Tyree was found sleeping soundly in a glass enclosed room, a sort of testing facility, She'd guessed the Dr. used this to experiment on Tyree's powers. Testing their strength and other capabilities. If her plan was to succeed, she would have to make Tyree

aware of them. The easiest way would be to enter his sleeping mind, and make contact that way. She'd enough exposure to him through Gabriel's documents, and her own Psychic probes of the crime scenes to become familiar enough to go deep.

"Tyree...Tyree!" She called softly into his sleeping mind. The child stirred but did not awaken.

"Mum?"

That was the entrance she needed. Betsy entered his mind, not as his mother, but as herself. fully clad in her armoured costume. She kept her distance as the boys dreams played out. She needed to see where his mind was at, what he was capable of. He twisted his dreams as easily as the waking world. He was well aware that he was sleeping. Having total control over his sleeping mind.

"You're not my mum, or my pa?" He said tugging on her cloak. He'd appeared right beside her, startling her. " You're one of those super types, what's your super name?"

"I am called Psylocke," she said bending down to his level. "I've come to help you, you're in a wee bit of trouble, I hope to help you go home!"

"You name's cool, You're like a lady knight?" He said touching her armoured arms.

"You look dangerous though, you won't hurt me will ya?"

"No child, Would me taking off my hood and mask help? If you saw my face?"

"Naw, I can see that you're a pretty lady, and You have to keep you secret Identity. I'm gonna be a hero one day when I grow up!"

"Can I help you achieve that goal? I've had quite a long time practicing this!" She stated smiling, standing up, going into an old modeling pose without realizing it.

"What kinda powers you got? Can you fly? Lift trucks? shoot stuff from your eyes?" He said excitedly.

"No, nothing like that!"

"Where's your sword and shield? Even Lady knights need shields and a sword!"

"Tyree, I read minds, it's how I came to be here with you in your dreams!" she said , hands on hips.

"That's a cool power to I guess, I can't read minds, I'm good at reading books though, My dad doesn't let me watch tv, but i got tons of comic books." he said eagerly.

"I'll make you a promise, when you get older I'll help you with your wish to be a Superhero, is that acceptable?" She quizzed him.

"Sure, but you don't even know what type of powers I got!" He said pleadingly, as if he wanted her to ask him.

"Tell me Tyree, what type of powers do you have?"

" I can turn people into other people, make them look and act like each other." He said excitedly.

"That's a very handy power, you can make people like you, good and kind yeah?"

"OHHHHH!" He cried with a smile on his face. " I never thought of that!"

Betsy knew she couldn't tell him about what happened to those three people and the agent, but would give him just enough to make it real.

"There was a man once, he saved you from being hit by a car, do you remember that?"

"Oh yeah, Was pretty scared then!"

"Well you've been making people look like him, and he's been getting in lots of trouble!"

She said easing into it.

" Is his mother and father upset? I'm sorry, I just wanted to see him again, he was co cool!" He said worriedly.

"No, but there are some bad people looking for him, and we have to make sure no one gets hurt if they look like him okay?"

"Dr. Ramsey has been wanting me to make people look like him alot, I don't like it when Dr. Ramsey does that.. I don't like him much, he's not nice!" he said growing a scowl on his face.

" I don't much care for him either, he's done bad things to me before also!" She stated rising again.

"Is that why you became a lady knight?"

"Kind of yes, but you have to listen now okay?" she said placing him on a colorful shifting rock. "I'm going to take you home, and away from Dr. Ramsey, but I need your help to do it okay?"

He nodded quietly, his dreamscape shifting in tone to a less colorful hue.

"This is going to require you to be a young superhero okay? I'll be your teacher, so you must do as I say okay? We want to leave here, and put Ramsey in jail, like a supervillain in the funnies!"

He nodded with vigor, and a scowl on his face.

"I need a mask!"

Betsy Smiled as she told him the plan of escape.